Healthcare Practice Strategies - Fall 2014 - Future Drivers of Quality Care

Published: Oct 28, 2014
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As healthcare inevitably moves from fee-for-service to a system that rewards quality outcomes, providers will need to focus on a whole new set of drivers to achieve the much-vaunted “triple aim” of a better patient experience, better healthcare quality and lower per-capita costs. These might include:

• Clinical Coordination – At the core of delivering quality care is a slate of robust, end-to-end clinical programs — from wellness and prevention all the way to complex care management. On the practice side, that might simply entail appropriate care coordination, medication compliance and appointment follow-up.

• Robust Information Technology – Of course, more sophisticated health information technology is required to tie it all together. This includes the ability to analyze epidemiological gaps and disease prevalence, all the way through EHR, e-prescribing and clinical registries.

• Patient Engagement – Online patient portals that allow patients to access their personal health records, request prescription refills and securely message their physicians have proven themselves in engaging patients to play a larger role in the delivery of their own healthcare.

• Integrated Delivery – Under healthcare reform, bundled payments may increasingly become the norm, divvying up payment among a group of providers who are incentivized to coordinate care. Success in the brave new world of third-party reimbursement may depend on participation in an integrated delivery system — allying yourself with a total-care team of hospitals, specialists, primary care providers, pharmacists and even home care services.

• Service Quality – Few patients understand the quality of their clinical care. Instead, they use service quality as their measure — everything from how they were greeted by your receptionist to how lab results and prescription refills were handled. Their overall service experience drives their perception of your practice — and their future referrals.

Healthcare Practice Strategies – Fall 2014